I won’t claim I’m not cheating a little with today’s X entry for the A to Z blog challenge, but the Cyrillic spelling and pronunciation for the word of the day could easily be represented by an X (update: Here it is in Cyrillic, so you know I’m not lying: Хорошо). So I’m running with it.

😀

I also have no idea how this particular banner came up in a Google search for the Russian word “Harasho”–but huge, red, bombastic, and prominently featuring Lenin was a common feature of my time in Moscow, so I’m posting it for its memorabilia effect. Not that you can actually see the Cyrillic “XCH” sound represented there (think: clearing your throat for this one–a loudly aspirated aitch sound with a bit of uvular involvement).

(Hey, it’s my blog, I can do what I want, right?)

😉

As for how this fits in to Dust to Blood? One thing I noticed when we lived in Moscow was that the verbal tick of many beginning English speakers there was that something was “guuud”. I don’t know if part of that is because they tend to use harasho to also mean OK (as in, “can you do x?” respond affirmatively with “harasho”), but it’s stuck in my head all these years. So it became a character element for me too. Similar to “da” (yes).

Or the Russian people are much more optimistic than any of their literature, fairy tales, or philosophies would have you believe. I’m not sure which is more ironic.